Top Gear

I taped (is that still valid when it's a HDD recorder?) Sunday's start of the new series and watched it yesterday.
I was on the floor, literally laughing out loud!
It is even better because I used to have a Suzuki Vitara and a friend of mine has a Fiat Coupé. (that comment by Hammond, "until it breaks" is priceless!)

California bucks the trend

Survey shows Californians less religious than rest of nation

And yet California is one of the most prosperous states ... I guess god loves the godless ;-)

Why indeed

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

New Facebook friend and books

So I'm now (Facebook) friends with Hezus who links to this excellent cartoon!

Also added Back to the Barrens and True North by George Erickson (yup, listening to Atheist Talk) to my future reading list, I took a ride in a floater plane once (this one from Seattle to Victoria), I recommend it to anyone, it's so different from a regular plane even other small planes, the pilot we had was quite skilled, he had a coffee cup on the dash and didn't spill it during the landing, soo smooth, we could only feel the waves when we stopped.

A great loss

George Carlin dies at 71

A generation of comedic masters is passing away before our eyes, let's hope the future still has great minds like these in store for humanity and lets them express their views unsuppressed.

He'll be missed!



Forgot to mention:
Fucking shit this piss cunt motherfucking cocksucking titless twat farted a turd!

A poor man left a comment on my previous post

He who must not be named (because of attention whore (nsfw) syndrome, will henceforth be called by his initials d.m. ) left a completely non relevant comment to my post on resolution 1464.
His gripe is with the JREF Challenge, in his comment d.m. claims to have personally stopped the challenge, what's really puzzling is that the JREF Challenge IS STILL ON until April 2010 (so still almost 2 years to go!)
Plus James Randi has not hinted at what will be done after 2010, the challenge may continue in another form, it may become more public (I hope) ...
From the comment it is obvious that d.m. is probably a teenager who is not very well off and is nearing the end of high school and he does not like the prospect of having to work for a living so he probably thought that he'd be able to win some money without doing anything and now is throwing a hissy fit, I suggest he gets a real job.

What's strange is that on a forum he links to he has posted this excellent video, just goes to show that the deluded only see what they want to see:


(oh, and I'm not going to allow his comment, I'm very liberal with comments and they do not even have to be really relevant but I'm not gonna allow rants!)

Resolution 1464 (2005)

(posted by black wolf on RichardDawkins.net)

Resolution 1464 (2005)
Women and religion in Europe

1. In the lives of many European women, religion continues to play an important role. Whether they are believers or not, most women are affected in one way or another by the attitude of different faiths towards women, directly or through their traditional influence on society or the State.

2. This influence is seldom benign: women's rights are often curtailed or violated in the name of religion. While most religions teach equality of women and men before God, they attribute different roles to women and men on earth. Religiously motivated gender stereotypes have conferred upon men a sense of superiority which has led to discriminatory treatment of women by men and even violence at their hands.

3. At one end of the spectrum lie the extreme violations of women's human rights such as so-called "honour" crimes, forced marriages and female genital mutilation, which - although still rare in Europe - are on the rise in some communities.

4. At the other end are more subtle and less spectacular forms of intolerance and discrimination which are much more widespread in Europe â€" and which can be just as effective in achieving the subjection of women, such as the refusal to put into question a patriarchal culture which holds up the role of wife, mother and housewife as the ideal, and the refusal to adopt positive measures in favour of women (for example, in parliamentary elections).

5. All women living in Council of Europe member states have a right to equality and dignity in all areas of life. Freedom of religion cannot be accepted as a pretext to justify violations of women's rights, be they open or subtle, legal or illegal, practised with or without the nominal consent of the victims - women.

6. It is the duty of the member states of the Council of Europe to protect women against violations of their rights in the name of religion and to promote and fully implement gender equality. States must not accept any religious or cultural relativism of women's human rights. They must not agree to justify discrimination and inequality affecting women on grounds such as physical or biological differentiation based on or attributed to religion. They must fight against religiously motivated stereotypes of female and male roles from an early age, including in schools.

7. The Parliamentary Assembly thus calls on the member states of the Council of Europe to:

7.1. fully protect all women living in their country against all violations of their rights based on or attributed to religion by:

7.1.1. putting into place and enforcing specific and effective policies to fight all violations of women's right to life, to bodily integrity, freedom of movement and free choice of partner, including so-called "honour" crimes, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, wherever and by whomever they are committed, however they are justified, and regardless of the nominal consent of the victim; this means that freedom of religion is limited by human rights;

7.1.2. refusing to recognise foreign family codes and personal status laws based on religious principles which violate women's rights, and ceasing to apply them on their own soil, renegotiating bilateral treaties if necessary;

7.2. take a stand against violations of women's human rights justified by religious or cultural relativism everywhere in the world, including in international fora such as the United Nations or the Inter-Parliamentary Union;

7.3. guarantee the separation between the Church and the State which is necessary to ensure that women are not subjected to religiously inspired policies and laws (for example, in the area of family, divorce, and abortion law);

7.4. ensure that freedom of religion and respect for culture and tradition are not accepted as pretexts to justify violations of women's rights, including when underage girls are forced to submit to religious codes (including dress codes), their freedom of movement is curtailed or their access to contraception is barred by their family or community;

7.5. where religious education is permitted in schools, ensure that this teaching is in conformity with gender equality principles;

7.6. take a stand against any religious doctrine which is antidemocratic or disrespectful of human rights, especially women's rights, and refuse to allow such doctrines to influence political decision making;

7.7. actively promote respect of women's rights, equality and dignity in all areas of life when engaging in dialogue with representatives of different religions, and work on achieving full gender equality in society.

Hands on with the Garmin Nuviphone

Here's a Youtube version of that movie about my next cellphone ;-)

J.C.V.D.

Gotta see this film



Here's an oldie:

nüvifone !!!

http://blog.laptopmag.com/video-of-garmin-nuvifone-in-action#more-2120
It took ages to load the video but I'm SOOOO gonna buy that thing when it becomes available in Belgium!

Gotta stop listening to podcasts

Yesterday I added Women Aren't Supposed To Fly by Harriet A. Hall to my reading list, today it's The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios.
And I still have 5 books on my nightstand waiting to be read ...

Beautiful nature

This was WikiPedia's picture of the day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Haeckel_Stephoidea_edit.jpg

Never heard of these Radiolarians but they're absolutely gorgeous:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolarian

John Safran: The Pope vs the Dalai Lama

Important post on Pharyngula

Support cancer research now

More people should be aware of the issues raised in that post.
And even though there are lots of conflicting emotions I consider it a very positive message!

If you are a British citizen

Sign the petition

I made some comments on this post

Is it wrong to burn people to death

jason seems like he could be a reasonable person but his brain has some serious flaws.

Ik heb nog niet gekeken maar het staat op mijn PVR

Een eerste reactie op Het Zesde Zintuig (VTM)

I hope there will be a lot of posts

on this (not a) blog and not only because I hope he gets back home safe.

It gives us all a great inside look at the deployment of a US soldier (who btw is an atheist, with a sense of humor!)

http://www.notablogtm.com/2008/06/04/deployment-update-week-3/

Holy CRAP (literally)

South Park episodes on-line, here's a good one to start :-)
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103969/


(a lot of commercial breaks though)

Lets see if this still works

Blogger is down.
I'm trying the mail2blog feature, I guess if it works y'all will see this when it is back up again ;-)






Google search

update: it's back!

Had to hold back tears

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/133_china/133_china.htm
http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/133_china/133_china_1.htm

No matter how godless someone is, tragedy is never deserved